An Oregon-bred blackberry hybrid, named for Marion County — the defining berry of Pacific Northwest pies, jams, and ice cream, prized for its complex sweet-tart flavor.
An Oregon original
The marionberry was bred in 1956 at Oregon State University by horticulturist George F. Waldo, crossing two existing blackberry cultivars (Chehalem and Olallie) to produce a fruit with the size of one parent and the flavor of the other.
The new variety was named after Marion County, Oregon — where the field trials were conducted, and which remains the heart of marionberry production today.
The Pacific Northwest’s favorite berry
Despite being just one of dozens of cultivated blackberry hybrids, marionberry has become iconic to Oregon and Washington. It’s the standard pie filling at countryside diners, the flagship flavor at Tillamook ice cream creameries, and a regional jam staple at the Pike Place Market.
Roughly half of Oregon’s blackberry crop is marionberry, and Oregon produces the majority of the world’s commercial marionberry harvest.
A complex sweet-tart character
The flavor of marionberry is notably complex — most descriptions point to a balanced sweet-tart with notes of earth and wine. It’s deeper than a regular blackberry, and many bakers consider it the best blackberry-type fruit for pies because the flavor doesn’t disappear when cooked.
The fruit is large (about 4 grams each), glossy, and dark — but soft enough that fresh marionberries don’t ship well, which is why most production goes to processing.
A pie politician
In a strange bit of food-and-politics history, the marionberry pie was at the center of a 1970s scandal in Oregon politics, when a state legislator was caught using marionberry pie as a bribery vehicle. The story became local lore.
The fruit’s name also occasionally creates confusion with Marion Barry, the late Washington DC mayor — leading to occasional jokes about “Marionberry” politicians and produce alike.